Judge rules Boston fraudster Brian Walshe competent to stand trial in wife's murder

Brian Walshe, the Boston-area convicted fraudster accused of killing his wife Ana, is competent to stand trial, according to a Massachusetts judge.

Walshe, who survived a jailhouse shanking in September, appeared in court wearing a dark suit with his hands shackled in front of him.

Judge Diane Freniere announced the decision at the end of an hour-long hearing Friday and scheduled a trial date for Dec. 1.

Walshe's trial was previously set to begin in October, but days before jury selection, Freniere halted proceedings and sent the defendant to Bridgewater State Hospital over concerns about his mental health.  

PROSECUTORS SAY HUSBAND DISMEMBERED WIFE TO DODGE PRISON IN ART FRAUD CASE

Freniere indicated she received a comprehensive report from Bridgewater - concluding the defendant is competent and ready to stand trial. Defense attorneys did not contest the findings.  

Separately, she denied Walshe's motion for a change of venue. Jury selection is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

Ana Walshe's remains have not been recovered. She was last seen on New Year's Day in 2023, and prosecutors allege her husband dismembered her in their Cohasset, Massachusetts, home before hiding her remains.

TIMELINE OF ANA WALSHE'S DISAPPEARANCE AND BRIAN WALSHE'S ARREST

They floated two potential motives at a hearing in July.

The first is that Brian Walshe discovered an affair between his wife and another man, whose name he allegedly searched on Google a half-dozen times. The second, prosecutors said, was that Walshe hoped his wife's disappearance might help him avoid prison in his art fraud case, where he owes nearly $500,000 in restitution.

ANA WALSHE MURDER: HUSBAND BRIAN WALSHE THREW OUT HACKSAW WITH POTENTIAL KEY PIECE OF EVIDENCE: DOCS

Ana reportedly confided in a friend shortly before her disappearance that Walshe was convinced having custody of their children would help him evade incarceration in the federal case, according to prosecutors. And he was the beneficiary of her $2.7 million life insurance policy.

Investigators say they found digital evidence showing Walshe allegedly searched Google more than a dozen times for instructions on how to dispose of human remains. Then they say they found video of him at Home Depot, buying mops, goggles and a knife. They also allegedly recovered a hacksaw and a "small bone fragment" in a dumpster outside Walshe's mother's house.

But one of the detectives on the case was former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired in the fallout of his handling of the investigation into Karen Read, who was acquitted on murder charges earlier this year in the death of her boyfriend, Boston cop John O'Keefe.

Brian Walshe has pleaded not guilty.

Fox News' Louis Casiano and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.